Kits

Eduard has released the long awaited Tempest Mk.V series 2 in their Profipack boxing and what a treat that is. The box includes a total of 7 sprues (two clear), plus pre-painted photo-etch cockpit details, detail pre-cut masks and cartograph-printed decals for 6 different airframes. Not only that, but you will end up with some extra parts for your spares box, as there are a few parts for the Mk.V series 1 and you also have some optional parts for different airframes. A comment is that some of the sprues seems to have been molded with a slightly different color of plastic (one is a tad bluer than the other sprues). Regardless the color, all sprues have the same 'feel' when removing parts or sanding parts.

Construction starts -like most airplanes- in the cockpit. A superbly detailed seat, stick and cockpit frame is provided, which with the addition of photoetch and careful painting becomes a small gem. One of my modelling buddies said: "That is a great looking cockpit!". I'm not a master modeler, so if my buddy said that is because Eduard helped me reach the status of having other modelers to admire my work.

I've built a number of models from this fledgling company, and must state one basic observation: they provide some fascinating subjects. I probably don't need to go into a lot of historical background regarding the revolutionary Arado Ar234, except to say that it was the world's first jet bomber and a truly amazing aircraft in many ways. I became fascinated with it during my teens when I built the venerable Lindberg kit, enthralled by the design.

Leave it to Fly to come up with not one, but several different configurations of this pivotal aircraft in my favorite scale, with more to come. I checked up on the Fly internet site and was not at all surprised to see that the two earlier releases are now sold out. Get them while you can!

The CF-188A Hornet, more commonly known as the CF-18, is a multi-role fighter that first flew with the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1977. It was chosen as a replacement for the CF-101 Voodoo and CF-104 Starfighter. The CF-188s were upgraded through two incremental Modernization Programs, with a new radar and avionics from the F/A-18C/D as well as a new targeting pod. This new kit from Kinetic is the latest special edition of the CF-188 Hornet and it covers the commemorative scheme for 20 years of service with the RCAF.

Special Hobby has issued a new release in their line of B-18 Bolos. This one is the ASW edition with radar nose and "mad" boom on the tail. It is a great addition to the B-18 series and a unique addition to any ones collection of large twin engine aircraft in 1/72 scale

Overview

This kit is the fourth in the B-18 Bolo series and is one of the more unique variants of this obscure aircraft. The kit is typical of Special Hobby in that it is a mix of styrene, photo etch, and resin parts and should still be considered "short run" so dry fitting and some slightly more advanced modeling techniques will be needed.

Construction

Before starting I dipped all the clear parts for this build in "future" floor polish. As there are a lot of windows and clear parts now is the best time as they are used throughout the build.

History

The Breguet 690 series resulted from a French Air Ministry competition for a heavy twin-engine fighter. Similar aircraft were being developed in Germany - the Messerschmidt Bf-110 and in Holland - the Fokker G.1. The Br.693 was the most successful of the 690 series designs. Powered by the Gnome-Rhone 14M engine, over 200 were produced and in service against German forces. These ground-attack fighters were loved by their crews but many were lost to anti-aircraft fire and Luftwaffe fighters during the furious battles in May and June 1940.

Armament of the Br.693 consisted of six internally stored 50 kg bombs, a 20-mm fixed forward firing cannon and four 7.5-mm machine guns. Three of the machine guns were fixed and one was on a flexible rear firing mount. The Br.693 was a good looking, reasonable performing twin engine ground attack fighter but it was outnumbered and overwhelmed by the Luftwaffe.